After it's been announced that the Newspoint has reached out to Prof. Jean Paul Baldacchino, who prepared the nomination for the Maltese festa to UNESCO to find out more about how this "big news for Malta's cultural scene", as it was called by Malta's Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, came to be.
2023 marks the twentieth year since the was adopted. Malta ratified the convention in 2017.
In this historic year, during which the Intergovernmental Committee Meeting for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage took place in Kasane, Botswana, Malta’s nomination for the Maltese Village Festa was approved for inscription in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making this the third nomination inscribed in this prestigious list (the previous two being L-³Òħ²¹²Ô²¹, Maltese folk song, and Il-Ftira).
Intangible cultural Heritage, also called the ‘living heritage of peoples’, is a term used to designate aspects of contemporary immaterial culture which communities recognise as an important aspect of their way of life.
Elements inscribed vary widely from the to the multinational inscription of . The inscription in the Representative List is a global recognition of the value of the cultural element with the corresponding responsibility for safeguarding the element.
Anthropology is an academic discipline that focuses on the role that culture plays in shaping the way we live and adapt to the world around us. It is a discipline that is comparative in scope and draws upon the diversity of human cultures to understand and address universal problems and questions. Anthropologists have therefore played a crucial role in the operation of the UNESCO convention.
University of Malta’s Prof. Jean Paul Baldacchino has been intimately involved with the implementation of the convention in Malta. Heading the delegation of the Government of Malta in Botswana in December 2023, he was responsible for the preparation and development for Malta’s nomination file for after having also co-ordinated the file on inscribed in 2021.
The research work and documentation carried out by anthropologists is an essential part of the implementation of the Convention. In relation to inscriptions in UNESCO lists, this includes ethnographic research with communities as well as visual documentation carried out by visual anthropologists.
UM Anthropology PhD student Adrian Camilleri was entrusted with the ethnographic documentary that accompanied the and files.
In 2023, the University of Malta’s Anthropological Sciences Department also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cultural Directorate to develop training and capacity building in ICH as well as furthering research on elements inscribed on the National Inventory of ICH and associated safeguarding measures. The , within the Ministry of the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government is responsible for the coordination of the inscription of ICH elements to UNESCO as well as the National Inventory, being the government entity responsible for the Convention in Malta.
